I decided to attempt a minor "bulk" after almost an entire year of stable weight. Looking to put 5 or so lbs of LMM. I've boosted my total blocks and increase my fat intake as well (i'm probably around 23 or so blocks with 2x fat at the moment). A week in and i've gain a few pounds (although not sure if its muscle as my waist has increase slightly). I will continue doing this for another month and assess.

2 questions:
1) At that point, if I have gained too much fat do i simply lower the carb intake and increase the fat to compensate for the lowered calories and continue that until I stablize again and then continue increasing fat?

2) Once I reach my goal, do I reset my diet to fit zone parameters to lean back down using my new lean muscle mass number (18 blocks v. say... 20) and lower my fat intake to regular block zones (v. 2x, 3x, etc) then tweak from there

Heres my take on it. I am thin. I can eat moderatley and be fairly lean with little effort. I'm going to take 3-6 months and really eat a lot of food (3600-5000kcals/day). After this time I will probably be fat. I will take a few months to trim back down to my usaul level of leanness. Hopefully my new LBM will be 10-20% higher. Hope this helps.

I find with Crossfit workouts, and it being the cause of sometimes severe muscle soreness, I struggle to eat enough, and get enough calories for my body to recover.

remember if you are working out, it takes alot of calories just to make new muscle

so, what I'm saying is.. if you want to gain muscle, you must eat an inordinate amount, especially if you are an ectomorph bodytype, (research bodytypes, not sure how crossfit feels about them, but they are cool thing to learn about) and don't mess with too light a weight, or else you won't be forcing your muscles to grow.

btw, I used to be around 215, 2-3 months ago, but I am a mesomorph, so it is a little easier for me.

Sean, that is exactly what I am worried about... any ideas on limiting that? My weight did not change (neither did my body fat composition) for an entire year last year while following a low carb higher fat diet

I'm certainly not one to ask about losing fat, but I certainly know how to eat more. I've read that you should increase your calories the same way you decrease them to lose weight: only by a few hundred calories per day.
I guess maybe another sweet potato and a protein shake may do it.

I'm like you and Nick, on the lean side. Previous half-hearted attempts to "put on a few lbs of muscle" did not work out so well, probably b/c I had a hard time overcoming the psychological barrier of losing my sixer. Then I read Rip's SS book and said •••• it, I'm going to eat and lift. In the past 4 months I've gone from 165 to 190 (5'11"). My BF has certainly drifted upwards but I still fit in the 32" waist pants as I did previously, though they're a bit more snug. I may continue up to 200 but I'm confident that after 6 months of bulking, it won't take an additional 6 months to cut fat, I'm thinking 6-8 weeks.

How did I gain so much weight? I ate a lot, including "gasp" lots of carbs (they seem to work great for bulking). How will I trim the fat, lowering the carbs. Simple, not easy.

Remember that all these suggestions are rather personalized and your results may very.

For me, 6'3" and 24, this past year has been enlightening. I spent most of the last year in Europe where I climbed 5days a week and aimed for 3/1off with xfit. Ate 16 - 17 blocks a day and walked. A lot. 2-3x fat. At the end of all this, my bw was 165. 4-5% BF.

Back in the states, with much less walking, I almost immediately put on 10 lbs. I felt at the time my lean body mass and general performance could use some improvement. Plus, winter was coming and I didn't want to freeze my ••• off during ice season. Upped blocks to 25, fat remained the same. With those intake levels, I could do 2 daily xfit workouts easily, most of them PRs. Wasn't climbing quite as much. I now weigh 195 (overshot my mark a bit) three months later. 7% bodyfat.

Realistic muscle gain is probably maxed out at 1lb a week (without other anablic helpers). Other factors include more hydration and increase glycogen retention in the muscl fiber. Anything more a week is probably added fat.

A Bulk is going to be 20lbs or so...with planning on losing 10lbs to lean out....and netting only 10lbs. Your nutrition has to be spot on and you may have to adjust because of insulin sensitivity/resistance factors. Sucky part about bulking quick...is you will lose lbs quick on the low carb fat loss side...most people can't handle that mentally.

Strong and steady gains...make it a year goal...not overnight....or you will be back here in 2 years asking the same questions and having the same stats.

Along with eating 4-5k per day in cals you have to be doing the kind of workouts that will compliment gains in muscle. A good 5x5 Bill Starr routine would do it. Check out this link, its the best synopsis of how to do it I've ever seen: http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow...nts_thread.htm
You are going to gain some fat along the way, no way to avoid that.